City and state officials and industry leaders made the announcement Thursday during a press conference in Denver’s City Park.

“If you look at what this means, that’s a huge benefit, but that’s not what deserves to be mentioned,” Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said in announcing the much-anticipated deal. “State parks, wildlife areas. All this stuff comes as an accumulative attraction. It is part of the defining characteristic of Colorado.

“What we’re saying today is that we’re in this for the long term. We’re going to continue to try and talk about the importance of outdoor recreation in Colorado. Henry David Thoreau once said all good things are wild and free. We believe that in Colorado,” Hickenlooper said.

Thursday’s announcement was about more than a trade show.

It’s a dawning for a galvanized, energized recreation community that will grow from Colorado, fomenting political, social and cultural support for public lands, environmental health and the outdoor recreation industry.

Denver’s hard-won negotiations to land the Outdoor Retailer rallies — a combined Outdoor Retailer – SnowSports Industries America Snow Snow in January, a summer show in June and a winter show in November — is a tipping point for Colorado’s surging outdoor recreation industry, a wide community that blends all types of outdoor players in an economy that stirs $28 billion in spending in the state.

“Colorado and Denver has always looked at this as more than a trade event or how it delivers a one-time bump the city’s economy,” said Kim Miller, the chief of Boulder’s SCARPA North America who serves on both the SnowSports Industries America and Outdoor Industry Association boards, the two groups that joined with Outdoor Retailer trade show owner Emerald Expositions to create a combined winter trade show. “This was, on the highest level, an alignment of values and visions and characteristics relative to the way the outdoor recreation industry wants to be and the way the state wants to be. To me, this is the definition of a true partnership. This was the moment for Colorado and it all tipped, in my opinion, toward the logical conclusion that these shows belong here.”

In a short 18 months, leaders from Colorado, Denver, OIA, SIA and Emerald — the largest business-to-business trade show operator in North America — hammered out a deal that typically takes several years. The agreement will put the Outdoor Retailer summer and winter trade shows in the Colorado Convention Center for the next five years, consolidating SIA’s Snow Show — which was booked in Denver through 2030 — with the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market show into a single gathering in January. The summer show shifts from its typical early August date to June and a new Outdoor Retailer winter market focused on soft goods moves to November.

Outdoor Retailer has already released the dates for its upcoming 2018 shows, seen here courtesy of the Post:

Background to Bears Ears Controversy

Since the November 2016 election, the Trump administration has taken steps toward altering President Obama’s decision. Although the President cannot unilaterally abolish a national monument designation through the 1906 Antiquities Act, which grants the President power to create national monuments, the president can resize a monument. Indeed, past presidents have increased the size of monuments, while others have removed acres from the designation.

Much of the question vis-à-vis monument designations comes down to whether the monument occupies the “smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” (Nota bene: the Antiquities Act stemmed from interest in preserving Native American artifacts across the West but expanded to include “objects of historic and scientific interest.”)

The Act has always stirred controversy in Western legislatures, so it’s no surprise Utah’s political leadership reacted as it did. Indeed, legislatures in years past have sought to limit the President’s authority under the Act. To this day, the President requires Congressional consent to create or enlarge any monuments in Wyoming and Congressional ratification is requires for any monuments larger than 5,000 acres in Alaska. Both limitations came after monument designations in each state (1950 and 1980, respectively).